Thrylos

I can see this. But: We are talking about a guy who: a. declined an offer from the Twins and signed elsewhere and opened his mouth about how great that other team was (and returned the favor to the Angels) b. returned to the AL Central to play for a Twins' competitor c. punched a certain teammate in the head, while targeting another, in the Twins locker room. d. This is a guy who has a propensity of putting his foot in his mouth and alienating teammates with his public statements. Here, here, and here (some examples). Lead by example? Maybe, but this guy? Not. That. Sure.

Originally published at The Tenth Inning Stretch ------ On paper the Minnesota Twins' reunion with 39 year old Torii Hunter last night, seems a bit puzzling. Rational thinking and looking at records and results of games, would suggest that a team coming back from seasons of 99, 96, 96 and 92 losses and hurting primarily in pitching and defense, would need an aging 39 year old outfielder with diminishing defensive skills being the marquee transaction of the season, as much as a painful communicable disease. Not to mention that the particular outfield added injury (signing with a team withing the Twins division) two seasons ago, to the 2007 insult of leaving the Twins as a free agent for more money elsewhere. But that is rational thinking. Any person who has followed the Twins should know that this is business as usual for Terry Ryan's front office. There is no need to rationalize Hunter's signing. It makes perfect sense, if you realize, that this is how Terry Ryan builds a team. Here is the complete Terry Ryan transaction record from the 1995-2006 seasons and 2012. I posted that before the last two off-seasons. The Torii Hunter signing fits Ryan's modus operenti like a glove: Ryan re-signed a 41 year old Paul Molitor in 1998, reunited the Twins with a 35 year old Mike Trombley in 2002 and washed out Matt LeCroy (the player who chose over David Ortiz after 2002) in 2007, re-signed Capps in 2012 and Carl Willing in 2005 (to release them later,) in addition to the last year's washed out trio of Bartlett, Kubel and Guerrier. This is the same General Manager who brought old and washed out Tony Batista, Tim Raines, Rueben Sierra, Bob Tewksbury, Otis Nixon, Mike Morgan, Michael Jackson and Sidney Ponson (among others) as "solutions". Old and washed out is Terry Ryan's specialty. Nothing new here, nothing to rationalized. Business. As. Usual. Back to non-rational thinking. One of the biggest problems with the Twins the past 4 seasons (and beyond, as far as the post-season goes) is that they seemed to be ok with losing and they seemed not to give 100% all the time. Last Spring Training, it became painfully obvious to me, and indicated that I just cannot see this team win, no matter what the improvements on paper (and there were a lot.) Getting Gardenhire and most of his friends who, if not bred, they were at least ok with this attitude, is a step to the right direction, hoping that Molitor and his staff will install a winning attitude among the players. Torii Hunter, punching short utility teammates while targeting rookie stars notwithstanding, has had the reputation of playing hard and giving it all. And keep working. And then work some more. Hopefully, he will bring the right attitude to the team of so many young players with so much potential. Hopefully he will be an example for hard work and never giving up. And never stop working. Not that I like that signing, rationally, but when it pours lemons... On the other hand, Torii Hunter was a core member of the Gardenhire teams that went belly up in the post-season or when they were facing winning opponents. I hope that 2015 is different. http://farm3.staticflickr.com/2849/13202271055_90f257ba1d_z.jpg

This signing makes perfect sense. You got to look at the root cause and not the symptom: Hunter was signed by the same guy who re-signed a 41 year old Paul Molitor in 1998, reunited the Twins with 35 year old Mike Trombley in 2002, Matt LeCroy in 2007, re-signed Capps in 2012, in addition to the last year's trio. The same guy who brought old and washed out Tony Bautista and Sidney Ponson as "solutions". This is how Ryan operates. Nothing surprising there. He just needs to go.

If Blyleven is in, Kaat should be in as well.

Great trade for the A's. Do not look now, but Lowrie is just 24 and his OPS+ been around 100 for a while and the As are not loosing much there (.247/.301/.421 vs .255/.342/.456 for Donaldson in 2014; both had worse 2014s than 2013s). Both of the pitchers are very good prospects with mid-rotation or end of pen stuff, and the 18 year old shortstop might be the key to that trade. .311/.384/.481 26 SB and 6 HRs as an 18 year old in short season A Ball (73 games) is nothing to frown about. If the Twins get anything similar to this for Dozier, they should do it in a heartbeat.

If they don't, they don't make the trade... Similar to the Santana deal for the Mets.

No way. Horrible inconsistency. Glove did get better last season, but just does not make enough contact. Also, Plouffe is not as fit as he used to be when he first came up. Pretty slow on the bases as well. Arguably Plouffe and Dozier were the two best players in the team without a long term contract. The problem is that this is a 92 loss team. Assuming that everyone is part of the solution will continue the problem... And the problem was not the scrubs on the bench, but the everyday players.

In this case you got: Schafer, DeShields and Hunter. 3 OFs. Arcia is a given. So 4. This means that Hicks and Rosario will be in the minors. No, thank you.

He does, but as a reliever. But I don't think the Twins will select a guy who has not pitched above high A and play him in the majors.

I'd rather see the Twins go after Jordan Zimmermann (and sign him to an extension,) than Hamels. I have seen a bit too much of Hamels over here to know that he is really inconsistent.

Not sure that DeShields is MLB-ready. Had a hard time to make the transition to AA last season, mainly hard time making contact with breaking stuff. Rosario is more MLB-ready that he is, if they need an outfielder. Plus there has been some talk about DeShields' "enthusiasm" and "motivation", which was the reason he was dropped from the Astros top prospect lists. Basically at the MLB level he is below where Jordan Schafer is at this point. Will he be better in the future? Sure. But you have to keep him in the majors and that will hurt the team. For me the most intriguing Rule 5 pick and the one with the highest chance of contributing for an MLB team is Joel Hanrahan (former Pirates' AS closer.) Out with TJ surgery for parts of 2013 and the whole 2014, just signed a MiLB contract with Detroit but was not added on the 40-man roster, thus available for the taking. Bit outside the box thinking.

WAR is a cumulative metric, so if one player has more PAs (and by hitting Dozier lead off, it is because of the manager) has higher WAR. For the sake of completeness and normalized Last 2 seasons: Dozier: 1330 PA, 8.9 rWAR, 7.3 fWAR, 6.69 rWAR/1000 PA, 5.49 fWAR/1000 PA Walker: 1220 PA, 7.6 rWAR, 6.4 fWAR, 6.22 rWAR/1000 PA, 5.24 fWAR/1000 PA Last 3 seasons: Dozier: 1670 PA, 9.6 rWAR, 6.8 fWAR, 5.74 rWAR/1000 PA, 4.07 fWAR/1000 PA Walker: 1750 PA, 10.1 rWAR, 9.0 fWAR, 5.77 rWAR/1000 PA, 5.14 fWAR/1000 PA Not that different the last 2 seasons, and Walker better the last 3 seasons.

I think that if the Twins packaged him and Kohl Steward or Jose Berrios plus maybe another prospect, they can get Jordan Zimmermann. If they extend Zimmermann, who would you rather have? Competitive teams close holes and are opportunistic. And are not afraid to sell high.

No way. Only one season with above league average OPS+. The Twins control him for 3 seasons and have the likes of Santana, Polanco, Gordon, Michael in the pipeline for the 2 middle infield positions. I'd sell high as a matter of fact and start 2015 with a middle infield of Escobar and Santana with Polanco waiting.

No. Swarzak was outrighted and refused assignment. This implies that he was DFA'd and there were no takers.

Every $#(&% who calls the Twins "Twinkies", if not associated with the Twins, becomes irrelevant, as far as I am concerned. Of course this is the same Dirk who accused Buchholz of cheating and Price of sucking. Decent writer of minor league life and stories, but as a baseball critical mind, blah.

Or Mike Pelfrey the closer

Clearly the biggest issue and the root of the problem is the front office. If the top executive of the team is a PR guy and not a baseball man and if the Front office has been pretty much unchanged the last 20 years despite the lack of fielding a competitive team against good teams, how can one expect any improvement? They should had hired a baseball person from the outside with a pedigree of success to run the operations, hire the front office and field personnel. The turn around that the Rangers showed with Ryan (the good one) on the helm should had been the model. But they blew it. Maybe Pohlad should sell if he does not care about winning.

I am really hard-pressed to find any difference between WM Pena and Colabello at this point, with the bat, at the bases or on the field. If the Twins want a power hitting OF, they should talk to the Dodgers about Kemp or the BoSox about Cespedes. Enough with this Terry Ryan annual dumpster dive.

If he is better than Gilmartin or Milone, or Darnell, the Twins need to get 2 out of those 3 off the 40-man roster if they sign him. Personally, I'd rather see Meyer have the opportunity to start ahead of this guy

Neil Allen is a sinker guru, pretty much the same way as Cuellar is a change up guru. He taught Chien-Ming Wang the sinker and that propelled him. Here is the problem: if that is your major pitch, and you throw it 80% of the time, it is the same philosophy as the previous coach (and the rest of the organization.) Pitch to contact and kill worms. But if you use it as a change of pace pitch and your goal is to miss bats, if is a different story. I hope it is door number two, but based on the internal selections so far, I don't see that the front office is ready for a change of philosophy at this point. I hope I am wrong.

I'd clear the roster a bit: Thompson, Fryer, Colabello, Herrmann gives them 8 spots. Then I would thing strategically about arbitration eligibles and STLHPs (Soft Tossing) Milone, Darnell, Gilmartin. Pick one. That makes 9 spots. Nunez, Schafer, Parmelee Do they belong to a contending team? Maybe one as the last guy at the end of the bench. Pick one. 11 spots. Think hard about the pen. Archer, Pressly, Swrzak, Oliveros or Fien? Pick two. 14 Spots. Duensing or Thielbar, pick one. 15 spots. That is your core. Add Sano, Rosario & Meyer. 12 spots. Rethink who you picked earlier and add 2 names. 10 spots open. About the right amount for a team that finished 99+96+96+92 to have to work itself into a competitive team. If the 40 man roster is about the same as 2014, the results will be similar. And this is not too good. I think a cleanup is needed... One of the major frustrations I have about this front office is that it approaches the off-season the same way every season, regardless winning 63 or 93 games the previous season. Even keel is ok in smooth water,during a storm even keel is disastrous

So much for getting any fresh blood from outside of the organization without Twins' connections... Pretty disheartening

How many wins? Cannot keep 90% of a team that lost 92 games and expect it to win. Why invest $20+ million on Rasmus and Masterson (who I don't think is healthy btw) if you are not going to compete. Better off playing the kids.

Polanco is too low and Gordon is too high.